Bad, bad me!

So it has been eight days since posted an update. My only excuse is that I've yet again begun night riding - but unfortunately, this time I'm riding the night at the Mega-Super-Duper-Quaternary Care Hospital (MSDQCH). Night riding at the community hospital I've posted about before is like surfing a sort of calm sea. Mostly, things are quiet and predictable. Only occationally do squalls or unexpected reefs appear. Riding the night at the MSDQCH is more like gripping a lifejacket after being tumped off of the Titanic during the world's worst storm - especially in the dreaded Respiratory Bay, also known as "Up Front". The folks who come "Up Front" are much more likely to be truly Sick. Notice the capitalization. When used among doctors, "Sick" is vastly different from "sick." When one of us normal adults has a cold, we are "sick." When one is dying of massive infeciton, has been intubated (had a breathing tube placed) and requires drugs to keep the good 'ole ticker pumping, one is "Sick." To make things worse, Respiratory Bay has fifteen freaking beds! Which means at night there is only one resident to cover fifteen Sick children.

Aack!

But there are good things about working "Up Front". The proportion of bullshit dips down. And the bullshit that eeks into Respiratory Bay is funny - for example, penile problems are frequently found Up Front. Why? The triage nurse is male, and honey, does he take the weewee seriously! An otherwise routine, minor infection of the foreskin? Respiratory Bay, damnit! That thing could fall off!

So bear with me folks, and think of me as I founder in the stormy sea of the MSDQCH.